[Wikipedia-l] FDL used to stifle distribution of articles

Thu Dec 4 20:28:10 UTC 2003

delirium at rufus.d2g.com wrote:
> Well, I think the plain language of the FDL is that Ulrich is correct.  It
> doesn't say you can point to a list of the authors elsewhere: it says that
> *you* have to list the authors, and on the title page, no less

But, where is the 'title page'?  My interpretation is that a link to a
page containing the title of the article and the history of
contributions *is* the "title page" in the sense of the GNU FDL.

> (not in a list at the end of the document, for example, and
> *certainly* not with only a link at the end of a document to a list
> elsewhere).

Why can't the end of the article have a link at the end saying, for
example "click here to see the 'title page' for this article"?

> Now whether Wikipedia would like to use the FDL is another matter.  But we
> currently do, and changing our license seems pretty impossible at this
> point.

That much is true.  We've discussed before making some kind of
licensing change, but it's really a lot of trouble, particularly when
*I* think that most of the alleged violations (such as the one you're
talking about here) are not actually violations at all.

--Jimbo